DAY 2 in SEOUL: A night stay in hanok!

Day 2:
• Visit Changgyeonggung Palace (Decided to sleep in!)
• Guided Secret Garden Tour at Changdeokgung Palace 창덕궁
• Walk around Bukchon Hanok Village
• Check in Bukchon Maru (Hanok)
• Shop at Insadong & take hanbok neoprints at Ssamzie-gil complex

We slept in and made sandwiches in the morning for breakfast! Egg with cheese and bacon! Somehow, I can't find photos of our banana milk? Oh well...

Breakfast!

Time to start the day! We alighted at Hyewha station, which was apparently not a good idea.. It was quite a walk to Changdeokgung. Oh well.. Let's have a morning stroll~ Google map doesn't want me to see what is the name of the hospital we walked passed >.< But anyways, we cut through a hospital to reach the palace and we saw a coffee place, Black mug! Time to grab my cup of caffeine! The menu is all in Korean,so my friend and I just ordered standard drinks i.e. Cappuccino and Mocha. The mocha was good! 

Black mug

Random shots taken on the way to Changdeokgung.

And we finally arrived at the entrance!

We bought the tickets: Changdeokgung entrance tickets & secret garden tour tickets. Just pass the counter the printout of your online reservation!

Queuing to enter secret garden!

ONWARDS! Start of our guided tour~

Pretty autumn leaves~

Cute girl picking fallen leaves!

Finally on our way out!

The place is rather big and definitely a lot of walking with stairs and slopes. Make sure you wear proper shoes when going for this tour! Then we decided to drop our bags in the hanok first before we do more walking! But, we still need to walk a bit before we reach Bukchon Maru...

More autumn colours along the way~

And we finally arrived! For my detailed review of my stay, click >>here<<

Bukchon Maru!

We dropped our bags, rest a bit and it's time for us to go for a late lunch! Tteokbokki at Meokswidonna (먹쉬돈나)! Yummy! For detailed directions & review, read >>here<<

Store front

tteokbokki 

There were quite a number of shops around where Meokswidonna is located. So we walked and shopped a bit. I can't recall why we went back to the hanok since our photos shows we went back... So for some reason or another, we are back in the hanok.

Sunset seen from the hanok

Then we went out again since the night is still young :P We saw this sweet potato stall earlier on and we decided to buy one this time!

Fried sweet potato! Yum!

It's located along this street

We headed back to the area where Meokswidonna is located as there are a number of shops there. We found Street Churros! For detailed directions & review, read >>here<<

Store front

 

Churros

We ordered 3 flavours (cause there was some promo), cinnamon, chocolate and soy bean. I especially like the cinnamon one, chocolate is good and last is the soy bean. But 1 of my friends' favourite is soy bean though! So depends on your preference.

After we were done walking around this area, we saw that we still have time and decided to walk down to Insadong to take our neoprints in hanbok! The neoprint shop is located at Ssamzie-gil complex (쌈지길).

Store front

The neoprint shop is rather small with I think around 3 or 4 machines and it was managed by only 1 staff. It was very busy when we went there so we didn't get to take photos of ourselves in the hanbok using our camera or phones other than the picture taken by the neoprint machine.

neoprint

Along the streets of Insadong, there were a few stalls selling dragon floss candy! They even show customers how it is made.

The store we bought from

Dragon floss candy (peanut!)

Since one of our friends was craving for some Korean fried chicken, we bought one to share when we were heading back to the hanok. I can't recall the exact place where we bought it from already though. Since we just happen to see the stall..

The fried chicken comes with fried tteokbokki and potato wedges

And... that's the end of Day 2!

*Continue to Day 3!~

DAY 1 in SEOUL: Transforming in kpop stars, maybe?

Day 1: 
• Take International Taxi to apartment
• Visit Cecica Hair Salon @ Edae
• Shop around Edae
• Watch Banpodaegyo Bridge Moonlight rainbow fountain (Too tired to head down, guess I will have to go next time I go Korea >.<)
• Go to Lotte Mart

 We headed to Changi Airport on Friday night for our Asiana flight at 1.30am. It is a direct flight and we will reach Incheon Airport at 9.05am. Read my detailed flight review >>here<<

Breakfast on flight

Needed to queue a bit to clear the customs. Once we collected our luggage, we went off to collect our portable wifi. It was a looong walk to counter A. When we took the escalator up, we came out nearer to counter J. Anyways, you just need to provide the staff with your pick up number and the staff will pass the package to you. The package comes with the return package for you to put the wifi into to pass back to Hanjin Express counter. Read about my reservation from wifi-korea >>here<<

Place to collect & return our portable wifi

Then we headed take a taxi to our apartment. We went to the International Taxi counter between gate 4 and 5. The staff then told us to take a seat while we wait for the taxi to arrive. It took us around 50mins to reach our apartment. So I guess the trip duration using a taxi is around the same as taking the train; however, without us needing to pull our luggages around.

When we reached the apartment, we cannot check in yet. I have checked with our host if we can drop our luggage earlier and she has told us during cleaning time, we can put our luggages in. At the apartment, the host's husband was cleaning the room and he helped us put in our luggages and also passed us the building's security card and portable wifi. Yeah! Since we will need the security card to enter the building after 7pm and we won't be returning to the apartment before that, it was nice!

Then we head off to our 1st stop! Ewha women's university station! We headed to Bonjuk (본죽) for our brunch! For detailed directions & review, read >>here<<

Store front

Menu

Abalone Porridge

Mushroom Oyster Porridge

Hot Seafood & Vegetable Porridge

Crabmeat Porridge

Then it's time to spend a few hours in Cecica Hair! Read my short review >>here<<

Store front

After doing our hair, we walking around Edae to shop! We bought this to snack on along the way! It is not bad!

After shopping, it's time to eat again! We had dinner at Alchon (알촌 이화여대점). It's time for bibimbap! Their bibimbap are all spicy ones though! >.< For detailed directions & review, read >>here<<

Store front

Bibimbap!

Then, it's dessert time at Homilpat (호밀밭)! :D Our first patbingsu in Korea! For detailed directions & review, read >>here<<

Store front

Watermelon bingsu & original patbingsu

We then went to Lotte Mart to buy banana milk & some other drinks as well as breakfast for the next day! Didn't remember to take a photo of our purchases though, I was having a headache by then; most likely due to lack of sleep! >.< Remember t bring your own plastic bag or carrier when we visit Lotte Mart since you need to pay for carrier. They do provide recycled cardboard for you to put your things into boxes though.

Finally, we head back to our apartment! More picture of the Seoul apartment at airbnb >>here<< For my detailed review of my stay, click >>here<<

Picture given by host

And... that's the end of Day 1!

*Continue to Day 2!~